Gun Ownership

Gun ownership is both a basic American right and one of the most contentious social and political issues of the day. There are about 300 million privately-owned firearms in the US‐which works out to roughly one gun for every man, woman and child in America‐with nearly a third of the population owning at least one gun.Many of these firearms were bought with home protection in mind, which makes sense: in the right circumstances, a gun can be your first and most effective line of defense against intruders and criminals.

Criminals don’t like finding themselves on the business end of a gun barrel any more than the rest of us do, which is why 74% of them actively try to avoid breaking into houses when the owners are home. 4 In other words, just the fear of being shot is often enough to dissuade criminals from targeting certain homes.